Spoilers want a bunny.

Say what you will of the horror genre but- ok, I have no segue into this. There’s just too many horror films that miss their mark. Now, for a lot of these the mark is just your basic gore and raunchy teenagers. We’re not talking about those right now. What I lament is the horror films that are going for actual scaredom and lose their way somehow. Unfortunately, this is one of those features. Let’s begin.

(Credit: Netflix)

Run Rabbit Run (2023) was directed by Daina Reid and written by Hannah Kent. Sarah (Sarah Snook) is a fertility doctor and a single mother. Her daughter Mia (Lily LaTorre) starts acting weirdly. She starts asking about Sarah’s mother Joan and calling herself Alice, a name that for Sarah represents her sister who disappeared a long time ago.

I did like the angle of Sarah slowly losing her grip in reality. Subverting the usual Super-Mom film troper where a mother always instinctively knows how to save her child, Sarah is particularly clueless as to what’s happening to Mia or how she can even keep her safe. Because of that, she comes very close to actually endangering her. When Sarah suspects that her ex-husband and new wife have somehow turned Mia against her, an almost unimaginable thought in cinema took shape. Is it possible that this mother is actually a threat to her own child?

I sort of wish that the film had actually ended in a more ambiguous outcome. Eventually, the truth – or at least the truth as perceived by Sarah – is revealed. To do that, we’re actually discovering the past to see the origin and the possible secret behind Mia’s disappearance. There’s a good chance you’ve discovered it by then. I’d have to say I appreciate the first half a lot more, where everything seems possible and the slow burn makes it feel more eerie. The last half is more chaotic, less elegant and uses a more dull palette. Perhaps very much on purpose, but it feels weighed down.

It’s barely recommended, but I feel there’s half of a movie in here to at least appreciate. There’s not much to the ending to wrap up the experience. The slow burn rules out the casual audience while the stylistic choices at the end might be only for a very niche audience. I can’t quite say I’m included there. Perhaps save this watch for a day in which you’re feeling contemplative.

That will do for now.